Left, right and center blogs are abuzz with the John Edwards Affair, continued/decreased (choose which one you believe) tensions between Barack Obama and the Clintons, and John McCain’s increasingly-effective campaign. Here are links to websites of varying viewpoints:

John Edwards’ False Assertion On TV has been caught by the HP’s Sam Stein, who first reported on the relationship between John Edwards and Rielle Hunter. This scandal has “legs” (in more ways than one…).

And Some Folks Have More Questions: John Hawkins has 6 big questions about the affair (not yet answered)…and a theory as to why Edwards came forward.

So Is Edwards’ Political Career Over? I’ve said YES…and others have the same view.

It’s Rightfully-Noted That The Mainstream Press has embarrassed itself in the Edwards story reporting. The bottom line: this story has been developed by the tabloids (the National Enquirer, which in the 80s deep-sixed Gary Hart’s Presidential dreams) and “new” media (the Huffington Post). With the mainstream media — which is apparently preoccupied with selling off newspapers, slashing jobs, reducing content with blatantly spin press releases about how readers say a paper may offer too much — playing catch-up. Steve Clemons sees ramifications for the old and new media. [Earlier link on this item was wrong. We regret the error.]

And At Times The Mainstream Media’s Reporting On The Scandal has not even been accurate.

But What About New Media? Should it be taken to task because of how weblogs and weighed the Edwards story versus the story about Russia attacking Georgia? Read this.

A Pox On Both Your Foreign Policy Advisers: In a must read Guest Voice on Political Wire, Dan Conley, a former speechwriter for Virginia Gov. Doug Wilder and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, is unimpressed with how both campaign responded to the Georgia Crisis:

While most of America is distracted with the Olympics and the Edwards scandal, the world is inching closer to a massive, destructive war between Russia and Georgia, one that could possibly draw in Ukraine as well. So far, the domestic political implications of this conflict have been minimal, but the actions of both campaigns raise troubling questions about how either Senator would perform as Commander in Chief.

Read it all.

Should Voters Care About Sex Scandals or not?

Barack Obama Gets Some Advice On Picking A Veep from John McCain’s “informal adviser” Karl Rove. (And we just know he has Obama’s best political interests at heart…) Meanwhile, The Politico offers 7 worrisome signs for Barack Obama. On the other hand, Obama is appealing to some libertarians which may be worth factoring in..

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Newsweek asked, I answer:

For Republican Senator John McCain, why not Democratic Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin? Ever hear of McCain-Feingold in reference to campaign finance reform? If a liberal, divorced Jewish Democrat won’t fly with the GOP, why not someone McCain actually likes such as Joe Lieberman or Tom Ridge?

For Democratic Senator Barack Obama, the boldest and best move he could make would be asking Al Gore to top his ticket while Obama takes the Veep slot himself. This would bring many disgusted Democrats back into the fold by ensuring experience at the top. Obama is young enough to run many more times.

This piece of legislation — and what Congress has done to the fourth amendment—which protects the privacy of ordinary citizens from unreasonable invasion by the government —  matters. 

Those who defended the telecoms for breaking federal law at the request of the Bush administration kept talking about the telecoms’ subjection to  ‘the heavy hand of government.’  This was always spurious argument in the case of the telecoms, who had no more obligation than you or I to comply with an unlawful demand to break the law (none) and the same obligation as you or I would have to refuse to comply. And in fact, not all telecoms chose to go along with the demand.    

FISA, on the other hand, unleashes ‘the heavy hand of government’ against ordinary citizens.

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…explained in 30 seconds by Russ Feingold:

I lived in France for just under two years. During that time the current version of FISA (which was just extended by voice vote for another 15 days to allow for more time to negotiate the next version) was in effect, and any of my phone calls home could have been monitored without judicial oversight, despite the fact I am an American citizen for whom no probable cause exists for any type of search.

“Trust us” wasn’t good enough for the founders, and it isn’t good enough for me.

For more on the new Democratic war-funding bill, the one without a timeline for withdrawal, the one that I addressed here (and Shaun Mullen here), see The Washington Post.

Here’s how that distinguished (deservedly or not) publication puts it on the front page of today’s edition: “Democrats gave up their demand for troop-withdrawal deadlines in an Iraq war spending package yesterday, abandoning their top goal of bringing U.S. troops home and handing President Bush a victory in a debate that has roiled Congress for months.”

Oh, really? How is this a victory for Bush? Because the timeline isn’t in it? What a narrow way to define victory. I have already made the case that a timeline wasn’t in the Democrats’ best interests, but, regardless — if I may quote my own post linked above — the Democrats have made their points, backed Bush and his Republican supporters into a corner, and, if this bill passes, set up another and likely more pressing battle with Bush once the fiscal year ends at the end of September, General Petraeus offers his assessment of the surge (which isn’t working), and a few more months of Republican discontent, as well as ongoing failure in Iraq, have passed.

How is that failure? It isn’t. WaPo gets it wrong. (By way of comparison, see CNN, which offers this: “[Leadership aides] said Democrats won’t give up on a deadline for pulling troops out of Iraq, hoping to write language into defense appropriations and defense authorization bills over the summer.” They also “said… benchmarks would be tied to Iraq reconstruction aid and would require President Bush to present to Congress numerous reports before August”. Well done, CNN.)
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